“At this stage, I’m leaning towards going into the auction”
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
After being released by the Mumbai Indians, former Australia batsman Michael Hussey has expressed his eagerness to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) again.
Hussey only scored 209 runs at a disappointing average of 23 in nine innings in the 2014 edition of the IPL.
“I’ve really enjoyed playing over there, I really enjoy the IPL, and I still felt like I was contributing,” he was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald. “At this stage, I’m leaning towards going into the auction.
“What I was most disappointed about was I did have a tough start over in the United Arab Emirates but if you looked pretty closely at it, most batters actually struggled in the UAE. A couple of the big power players did quite well but a vast majority of the batsmen did struggle.
“But as soon as I got back to India I actually felt really good and felt like I was contributing to the team, both on and off the field, and I felt like I was building something really special with Lendl Simmons as an opening partner.
“I don’t like to look at the averages too much in T20 because sometimes they can blur the truth. All I can say is I felt like I was batting really well and was contributing. You don’t always get what you want in life and unfortunately it did not go my way on this occasion. They [Mumbai Indians] saw things differently.”
As soon as Hussey and Praveen Kumar were released, Mumbai signed Unmukt Chand and Vinay Kumar.
“I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes,” he said. “All I know is that I was told they wanted to get some fresher faces in there. I’ve heard whispers and other things, things like they needed to free up some money to get some other players in.
“I put my heart and soul into Chennai and I was keen to play my whole career there. But in the next edition, I moved to Mumbai and took time to adjust and feel comfortable in the new environment. Now it feels like a bit of unfinished business because I spent only a year there and things take time to evolve and time to build.”